India, April 10 -- India's infrastructure push is no longer incremental; it is transformative. Expressways, freight corridors, renewable energy parks, and expanding urban footprints are redrawing the country's economic geography. Yet, beneath this ambition lies a persistent bottleneck: land acquisition.

The paradox is stark. While infrastructure planning has become more sophisticated, land acquisition continues to operate through outdated records, fragmented laws, and largely static planning tools. The result is a widening disconnect between how land is understood and how it is acquired.

At the root of the problem is the mismatch between recorded land status and ground reality. In many parts of the country, land classification still dep...